NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Behind 23 points from Josh Williams and 20 points from Martin Smith, the Lipscomb men’s basketball team finished the 2013-14 regular season with an 83-76 Atlantic Sun Conference win over Stetson on Saturday morning at Allen Arena.

The win secures the No. 5 seed in next week’s 2014 Atlantic Sun Confece Men’s Basketball Championship that begins at host-school sites on Tuesday night. The Bisons (15-14, 10-8 A-Sun) will take on ETSU in Johnson City at 6 p.m. To purchase tickets email tickets@lipscomb.edu or call 615-966-4373. The game will be carried live on http://www.ASun.TV and 94.9 Game 2

The first half saw the Hatters (7-23, 5-13 A-Sun) jump out to an early lead thanks to a sluggish start for the Bisons. Stetson would lead by as many as eight in the opening stanza before Lipscomb battled back to trail 38-36 at the half.

“Our effort and energy definitely got better as we went along, there’s no doubt about that,” said Lipscomb head coach Casey Alexander. “I don’t think there was any hangover from the game on Thursday night. I just think our standard for who we want to be and how we want to play needs to be better. That’s my job to relay that message and for us to carry it out on the floor.”

The second half saw Williams and Martin Smith come out and go to work. Williams would score 16 of his game-high 23 over the final 20 minutes while Martin Smith added a dozen including a 4-for-4 effort at the charity stripe in the game’s final two minutes.

Williams added 13 rebounds for his first career double-double.

“We’ve seen Josh do what he did today several times this season,” said Alexander. “We got a lot of production from him and just having him as an interior presence created some shots for some other guys. I have to give him a lot of credit for being a significant piece of this game.”

A 16-for-18 performance at the line in the second half for the Purple and Gold proved to a deciding factor. For the game, Lipscomb hit 31-of-40 while Stetson was only 10-of-18. That margin helped the Bisons overcome the Hatters hot shooting as Stetson shot 54.5 percent from the floor on 30-of-55 shooting. Lipscomb countered with a solid 22-of-49 effort for 44.9 percent.

“Our offensive numbers today don’t look like we would want them to from a percentage stand point,” said Alexander. But when you talk about efficiency and you’re shooting 40 free throws in a game that’s a significant factor on the offensive end.”

Lipscomb also held a 34-29 advantage in rebounding and an 11-7 edge in turnovers.

Bison junior forward Malcolm Smith also scored in double digits with an 18-point effort hitting 4-of-5 from the floor and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line.

Hunter Miller led the scoring for the Hatters with 17 points as part of five players in double figures for Stetson.